


When Things Get Complicated

by blklightpixie26



Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-13 09:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21242099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blklightpixie26/pseuds/blklightpixie26
Summary: Two people mean the world to Dario, but neither of them know that he sees them both. On a night where Jess is mentally worse than normal and Dario invites him into his bed, Khalila also has a need of Dario. Will it all work out in Dario's favor or will it blow up in his face?





	When Things Get Complicated

Dario looked over the side of his bed and saw the body lying there. He sighed softly beyond tired from trying to work with his new mentor, but knowing something was wrong. The first time he had found Jess in his room was after the rescue from Alexandria. Now though he found this to be a more frequent thing.

“Scrubber?”

“G’way.”

“Color, Scrubber.”

Jess buried his face under his arm so Dario couldn’t see it. “Amarillo.”

Dario shook his head snorting softly. Jess might have thought hiding his face would help, the tone of his voice gave away much more. There was no way that Jess was only a yellow tonight. “Stop lying to me.”

“Rojo. Negro.”

Dario lifted the blanket so that Jess could get in. “Come here.”

“Dario.”

“Hush and get up here.” Dario chided gently.

Jess slowly got up off the floor and took off his boots. He stripped down to his boxers and settled into the warmed mattress. “Didn’t want to wake you up.”

“You should know better.” Dario settled into the bed spooning up behind Jess. “What happened?”

The other man shook his head feeling Dario behind him and closed his eyes. “Don’t want to talk about it. Just want to be here.”

Dario’s fingers carded through his hair gently. It was one thing to have a stressed out Khalila in his bed, but another to have Jess. Khalila was far easier to handle, especially the two weeks leading up to her cycle. It all lead up to sex between them and Dario was fine with that fact. Jess was more tricky to handle, as he was more likely to lie to him. Some times he could settle Jess with a quick fuck or blowjob, but then there were nights like tonight where it was more complicated.

“Dario?”

“Merde.” Dario cringed looking down at the man in his arms. At least Jess had settled into sleep and there was a chance it wouldn’t be a complete disaster. “Bedroom, Madonna.”

The moment Khalila walked in and saw the two in the moonlight, her shoulders stiffened. “Where, who , and why?”

Dario shrugged helpless without answers for her. “He won’t talk about it. I would have tried harder, but as it is he lied to me once.”  
Khalila stripped down getting into the bed in front of Jess. She traced the stress lines on his face and sighed. “I want to fix this for him.”

“I don’t know if it can ever be truly fixed, Madonna.” Dario replied sweeping a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Jess has more baggage than he ever talks about.”

“Yet he comes to you.” she looked up at Dario more curious than upset. “Why is that?”

Dario floundered with his answer. How did he and Jess start on this bizarre path? He leaned down kissing Jess’s neck considering his answer. “It started during Philadelphia and has gotten more complicated since then. I think the biggest hell was when he was alone in Alexandria as his twin. Jess hasn’t been the same since any of it.”

Khalila stared at him for a moment when different things happened in the cells of Philadelphia at night started to make sense. “The colors.”

Dario nodded. “I understand better now where they came from, but then it was something I overheard from various places. We needed a way, I needed a way to find out where he was mentally especially after he started blaming himself for Santi getting hurt. Even if I couldn’t get to him at least I could talk with him a bit. Green we could fall asleep and I didn’t need to worry. Yellow meant I might be able to get some sleep that night, but there was no guarantee. Red meant I would be awake just in case it all went to hell.”

“Now?” she asked without judgement.

“Now it’s muddled. I started teaching him Spanish and sign language in case something needed to be said and had to be careful about it. Some nights I send him a message asking color and when he says green I pray that he’s not lying to me. Other nights I get his response and call him on it, sometimes he changes it and sometimes he doesn’t.”

Khalila ran her fingers through his hair. “Tonight?”

Dario leaned into the touch sighing heavily. “He came into my room tonight without me knowing. I woke up to find him on the floor. When I asked his color he told me yellow but I called him on it. He wouldn’t look at me and hid his face so I couldn’t see. Jess finally admitted to it being red and close to black. I didn’t know you would be coming.”

“Stop blaming yourself.” Khalila admonished. “Have you even told him about your migraines?”

“Jess doesn’t need to know about that right now.”

“Don’t lie or hide things from him Dario. You know about his secrets, don’t keep secrets from him.”

Dario closed his eyes. “I don’t know all his yet. He doesn’t know about you and I seeing each other either.”

“Silly fools. You both need to get it together.” She looked between them switching to run her fingers through Jess’ hair. “He does look good in your arms.”

“So do you, Madonna. We can’t tonight though.” Dario said regretfully.

Khalila got up and rummaged through Dario’s drawers until she found a shirt. Quickly sliding it on, she got back into the bed and comfortable again. “Perhaps it’s time to take heed of Jess’ idea and just be able to actually sleep together.”

“You are an amazing woman, Querida.”

“I will be your worst enemy if you don’t tell him about those migraines.” Khalila leaned over Jess kissing Dario.

“Promise.” Dario returned the kiss though his hand was splayed over Jess’ stomach.


End file.
